Reno Reporter

An associate professor with University of Nevada, Reno’s Department of Geological Sciences and Engineering is researching how lithium-rich ores are made.

Lithium is utilized to manufacture electric batteries, and Nevada is known to be rich with deposits of the sought-after metal, according to a news release shared by the university. Backed with new funding from the National Science Foundation, Philipp Ruprecht is examining how Thacker Pass in Northern Nevada is filled with lithium.

“There are a couple things that were special when this one formed where all the ingredients came together in the right way,” Ruprecht said in the release.

Approximately 16 million years ago, the location of Thacker Pass experienced a magmatic eruption that resulted in an increase in lithium in the area with the production of calderas, the release said.

Calderas happen when hot magma explodes and creates a vacuum beneath the earth that is filled with the erupted material, in this case lithium, according to the release.

Rainfall or snowmelt may be able to fill the depression that a caldera often leaves in the landscape. Calderas often drain into a river or stream, but the McDermitt caldera, which is located in Thacker Pass between Nevada and Oregon, is unique in that it is a closed basin. A lake formed over the McDermitt caldera, when the lava body below the surface cooled.

Additionally, water can seep through cracks and openings in the ground, accumulating minerals and other elements like lithium as it does so. In a hydrothermal process, the heat from the magma body that was still cooling enabled the water to reemerge at the surface, the release said.

Given that many basins created by volcanism aren't very lithium-rich, Ruprecht and his research team believe that hydrothermal liquids were vital in the enrichment process at Thacker Pass. Any rainwater that fell in the McDermitt caldera was collected in the basin and had no way to escape, increasing the lithium concentration.